Australians in line for $22m shoot-out

By Chloe Saltau in Antigua

25 February 2008 — 11:00am

THE experience of being snubbed by the Indian cricket board and then scooped by the Indian Premier League has not fazed Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, who intends to offer Australia's cricketers $US20 million ($21.73 million) for four hours' work in the Caribbean next year.

And Stanford, judging by his recent effort to gain permission from the United States Government to do business with Havana so he can add Cuba to his regional tournament next year, usually gets his way.

The International Cricket Council had expressed concern about Stanford's previous proposal of a quadrangular Twenty20 tournament. Now his latest concept pitches the Australians against an all-star team from around the West Indies playing for a winner-takes-all prize of $US20 million.

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India refused a similar invitation after winning the Twenty20 world championship in September and has since trumped Stanford by launching the fully franchised IPL, which the Texan suggested tapped into the mercenary instincts of the modern sportsman. By contrast, he is adamant that in Stanford 2020, the domestic competition involving 21 Caribbean nations, cricketers will represent only their own islands.

And he declared the IPL would not distract him from his ambition to gain global exposure by tempting a leading country into a shootout.

While many of the Australian IPL stars are not expected to play in the tournament next year because of tour commitments, Stanford may see an opportunity for a flying visit around the time of the Ashes tour next June.

He is yet to hold formal talks with the boards of Australia or England about either country's availability.

"If enough players in Australia or England or India know they have a chance to come down here to the Caribbean and … walk away, each one of them, with millions of dollars in their pocket, I think it will probably happen," Stanford said.

"All this junk I had to go through in the beginning … well, the project is too big now. So I think next year it is absolutely certain to happen.

"I invited the winner [of the Twenty20 world championship] to come over here and play first for $[US]5 million and then I said, 'I'll give you $[US]10 million'. The [Indian board] said, 'No, we don't want to do that, because it would be endorsing a privately funded program', and look what they've done …

"What I eventually want to have is what I call 'the OK Corral'. Anytime, any place, you come to our field and play one game, Twenty20, for $[US]20 million. The best of our players against your team."

Stanford's determination to make a regular fixture of the shootout may pose yet another threat to the ICC's Future Tours Program and clash with the Indian board's likely lobbying for an annual period for the IPL.